New Movie Ratings System Discerns Whether That R-Rated Film Includes Harmless Nudity Or Newtown Level Violence

For years the MPAA’s ratings system for movies have been pretty vague — and not all that helpful to parents. Painted with a broad stroke, the ratings system didn’t specify which exact content in the films caused them to be given the ratings they received. There is also the little issue of failing to take into consideration that some parents may not care so much about their children witnessing nudity or bad language — but were more concerned with violence in film. But now the MPAA has announced a revamped ratings system to provide more information to parents, which I think is long overdue.

After the tragedy in Newtown, Vice President Joe Biden met with the leader of the MPAA and the National Association of Theater Owners to adjust the current ratings systems to have more of a focus on the violent content in films. The new system will be more specific to each film and have descriptions of violence, language and sexual content displayed next to the rating:

The new “Check the Box” campaign will highlight descriptions of why a movie received a certain rating. Also, there will be a tag attached to trailers explaining that the trailer is approved to play with the feature they came to see. The campaign also includes a new PSA as well as a new poster that will be displayed at theaters nationwide.

In addition to explanations as to why the movies receives certain ratings, I’d also like to know why a film with a 10-second shot of a naked woman and one that is littered with violence receives the same rating. But for now I guess this will do.

There are already a number of websites that screen movies and give parents information on content. But it will be nice to get information straight from the people whose job it is to actually rate the films.

Although I do hope the new system is more helpful than the PSA created for it. After watching it I was only left wondering if the NC-17 lady and the PG-13 drunk guy meet up later in a film rated X.

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(photo: dotshock / Shutterstock)